


I Think I Met You Once

by desperationandgin



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 06:23:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/909953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperationandgin/pseuds/desperationandgin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Juliet and James, in another life, have chance meetings.</p>
    </blockquote>





	I Think I Met You Once

**Author's Note:**

> Juliet and James, in another life, have chance meetings.

Juliet lets go of his hand, screams tearing from her throat as she falls down and down and down. There’s no flashing of a life lived, just thoughts that could really only be seconds long. She’s never going to see her sister again. She’s never going to meet Julian. She’ll never kiss James just one more time; they’ll never have a real life together. And then, every thought stops when she hits the ground, eyes flying open instead of remaining firmly shut.  
  
There’s blue sky above her, and it feels like someone took a hammer to her chest as she tries to take a breath.  
  
“Holy shit, are you okay?”  
  
“Mom?”  
  
Voices start to register and she blinks, gasping at the lingering taste of metal and blood, and there’s a person on either side of her helping her up. “I fell,” she manages, and then there’s a woman standing in front of her.   
  
“No shit you fell, are you okay?”  
  
Juliet blinks again and looks at Rachel standing right there, and the overwhelming urge to hug her swells then passes. “I’m…I’m okay, I think.” She touches her lip and her fingers come away bloody. “I must have bit myself when I fell."  
  
“Mom, maybe you should go see dad.”  
  
She turns to her son, all blue eyes and a mess of hair, face twisted in concern just like Jack, and she closes her eyes again. “No, it’s okay. I just got caught up with my heel in the sidewalk, I’m fine.”  
  
“I don’t know,” Rachel says doubtfully. “You hit your head pretty hard.”  
  
“Jack’s a spinal surgeon, and I’m walking just fine. Come on, let’s keep going,” Juliet insists, and David slips his hand into hers as they walk into the movie theater.  
  
***  
  
 _Just because two people love each other, doesn’t mean they’re supposed to be together._  
  
She wakes up with a start, fumbling for the lamp by her bed, haunted by blood and green eyes. Juliet has no idea what happened or who she was talking to, but she wants to take it back. To tell whoever it is that she was wrong and nothing else matters. Head still pounding from her earlier fall, she climbs out of bed and pulls on her robe. Maybe Rachel and David were right; she should have gone to see Jack. Trying to figure out what time it is, she unplugs her cell phone from its charger and blinks at the glow. Eight after four in the morning. Perfect. She has to be up in two hours, but she doubts Jack is asleep so she dials the numbers.  
  
A sleepy, gruff voice answers. “Yeah, hello?”  
  
Juliet frowns in the dark. “I…Jack?”  
  
“Sorry, I ain’t Jack, sweetheart.”  
  
The line disconnects before she can say anything else and her heart feels like it’s beating too fast.  
  
 _That alright with you, sweetheart?_  
  
“Absolutely,” she whispers in the dark, and forgets about calling her ex.  
  
***  
  
She’s going to miss her flight; LAX is frustratingly crowded. Looking at her watch, she takes it off to get through security, then bends down to slip off her high heels. When she stands to put them in her grey bin she catches the eye of a man in another line checking her out and she turns a little red. People don’t check her out. No one’s checked her out since Jack got drunk and consequently, got her pregnant. Maybe after thirteen years enough time has passed. When she looks back he’s tossing his things in his own bin and then she’s being waved through the metal detector. She keeps beeping, over and over again but she doesn’t have anything, she keeps telling them that.  
  
“Would you like to go to a private room?”  
  
She shakes her head. “No, no, I don’t have anything, go ahead.” Looking around, she catches the eyes of the man again, struck by the green, and then he speaks to her from his line.  
  
“Just close your eyes and enjoy the free pat down, Blondie.”  
  
Juliet rolls her eyes, but there’s a huff of a laugh that escapes. They wand her and she keeps beeping right at her calf, but she’s wearing a skirt and there’s nothing there, so an expert opinion is offered. “Could just be a piece of metal, somehow never made its way out. Probably when you were a kid, fell off your bike or something.”  
  
She takes her things, walking toward her gate.  _Or something_.   
  
She damn near runs into someone she’s so lost in her thoughts, and when she looks up it’s the same guy from the line. Juliet takes a step back, out of his personal space.  
  
“Well now, we gotta stop meetin’ like this.”  
  
He has dimples and they ought to be considered dangerous weapons. “Sorry,” she apologizes. “I’m just…I don’t want to miss my flight.”  
  
“Where you headed?”  
  
“Tampa. Medical conference.”  
  
“Tampa, huh?”  
  
For just a second they lock eyes and there are thousands of people pissed off that two individuals are just standing there, making everyone go around them. But then he blinks and she gestures down to gate fifteen. “Gotta go,” she smiles politely before walking past him. Juliet turns back once to see him walking down toward the international flight terminals. She’s never going to see this guy again, and she didn’t even get his name.


End file.
